He explains his body of work to date and the distinctive style of his street photography. But, there is an ambiguous and near abstract beauty to his portfolio that is somehow his signature.

“If you have to consciously think about it then the photos can feel forced,” He explains. “My approach is to react spontaneously to whatever catches my eye and over time things come out through that. You establish themes in your work and whether it be a particular way that you shoot or respond in that fraction of a second before pressing the shutter – it’s these gut instincts and editing the work that set the course for your voice in photography.”

His photos chime with an obvious and colourful simplicity, and yet he has the ability to create work that is intriguing and thought-provoking.

Copyrightⓒ Joshua K. Jackson

It is ALL in her eyes.

A woman looks out from the rear of a car like a startled rabbit in the giant floodlights of a massive football stadium. The red, yellow, sky blue and white light reflections create patterns and I see bars that seem to trap her behind the glass. She is like a prisoner in the rear of the vehicle.

A metaphor for women’s repression?

Could be, but I am asking myself: ‘who is she? Where is she going?’ She could be a pop or film star captured by the paparazzi, or a random woman shot by a street photographer? They are not so far apart, in the context of both, in their own ways, being extraordinary.

“I always approach each day with a completely open mind,” Joshua tells me candidly. “Sometimes I don’t even know which station I am going to get off at.”

How many of us can enjoy such a random way of approaching work?

“I’m guided by a gut feeling.” He continues. “And, in street photography generally you are either a hunter or a fisher. I find that I am definitely more of a hunter.”

It is an interesting but important observation.

“I am constantly moving around the city” He reveals. “I guess the reason for that is when I started doing street photography I was kind of fishing for shots with stratic scenes. But with this approach I found myself getting too… emotionally invested in the idea of a particular result and…the approach didn’t excite me. I much prefer the challenge of reacting spontaneously to what was happening around me rather than standing around.”

He takes a few seconds to gather his thoughts, walking around and through his own personal photographic universe, slipping unseen between the streets he works on and his images.

“I tend to operate in very small area in central London – just a few streets mainly” He says. “I do laps – each lap or new day brings you something new and unexpected. These are the things I try to photograph.”

The result is photographs with an intriguing pull, a magnetic resonance that draws the viewer in.

Copyrightⓒ Joshua K. Jackson

A coke can on a bench. A simple image, that is so Joshua Jackson. The distinctive red of the can contrasting with the ‘iconic’ white ‘Coca’ lettering. The can, in turn, sitting on a red bench backdrop, with the arm of a person wearing a reddish T-shirt just coming in to the frame from the side. A can, that symbolises a successful and powerful brand. Joshua has it central to the activity happening all around it – as it is central, and famous, in the world we live in. ‘Things go better’, as they say.

Born in Buckinghamshire, Jackson went to school in Somerset, later moving to London where he studied economics and finance, before working in the city for ten years.

“In August 2016 I started street photography,” Joshua told me. “Within three months I decided it was something I had to do… and pursued photography full time ever since. I have been a full-time photographer since January 2017 working on commercial and editorial assignments and commissions, teaching workshops and selling prints. That’s is where I’m at right now.”

There is a beautiful shot of a woman on a train that is quite cinematic. It is a quite dramatic, quite haunting image, and the busy train somehow amplifies her loneliness. It also echoes Joshua’s own statement: “Sometimes I like to think of the city as a giant movie set being played out in real time.”

Looking at that photograph, even now, I still think that something is just about to happen. Isn’t she an ‘actor in a scene from a Martin Scorsese film?

Copyrightⓒ Joshua K. Jackson

“Oh yes, that was in New York,” He remembers. “I know that there is nothing really happening in the scene but it just felt like she was in her own world completely surrounded by people. I felt at that moment there was, almost, a sense of isolation. She was kind of completely closed off to all the noise… and the heat and the stress of the city. The thing that kind of made me want to take the shot was her head is kind of touching the red light behind, and I just found that those two things together you have a natural focal point for the photo. There was a band playing behind me, and she was completely in her own world, and I just kind of liked it. It was just one of those photos you take on the way to somewhere else.”

I did notice, however, that a lot of Joshua’s work was taken at night.

“I started shooting at night very early on,” He revealed. “I struggled during the day because street photography, especially if you are in central London, so much going on that it can be quite hard to cut through all of that noise, and find… something that is specifically of interest. I found…at night all you have to work with are the light sources. In a way you are a little bit like a moth and you train your eyes to where… the light sources are and whatever happens, whatever transient things happen within those moments is kind of up to chance. I found it easier because in the day I was struggling with where to focus my attention.”

In one drama-laden night scene, Joshua captures a man looking up at the sky and we are immediately hooked. Questions come tumbling: Why is he looking up? What has happened?

Copyrightⓒ Joshua K. Jackson

“I was waiting to cross the street and I noticed him looking up,” Joshua said simply. “There was just this huge crack of thunder and he looked up at the sky and I thought: ‘Oh, I have to get this expression’ whilst he was looking up. [I] didn’t think anything of it at the time and it was only afterwards that I noticed there were car headlights and the Superdry store and the umbrella. It was just all about him looking up at the sky at that moment. Again, it was a gut feeling to take a photo so I did.”

Joshua K. Jackson is an important street photographer, one who is pushing boundaries, has ideas for future projects and is creating a brand of street photography that is exciting and adventurous

While representing the world around us in an, often, ambiguous and candid way, his work makes us immediately think about what is happening and the visual narrative unfolding before us. Isn’t that what it is all about?

Sergio Burns
Sergio Burns Editor at Large, is an Author & a Senior writer for AM, a widely published Journalist in The Mail On Sunday, Contemporary, The Sunday Herald,
Blueprint, The New Entertainer (Spain), In These Times (USA), Austin Chronicles(USA), Whitewall (USA) & Sprudge (USA) to name a few.